Sunday, August 31, 2014

Weyland's 2nd Birthday Party!

Let's rewind a little...

On May 27th Weyland turned 2!!  Wow, how did that happen!  We had just recently moved to Houston and had a big birthday party at our new house with all of our family and local Houstonians.  It was a construction themed party with dump trucks and construction hats.  We had a total of 11 kids and babies there!  I didn't even realize Weyland had so many friends.  He had a ton of fun with all of his new friends.  We are so happy all of our friends and family that made it came and celebrated Weyland with us!

On his actual birthday Weyland got a birthday cupcake and had a mini celebration.  Here's a little footage of it.  



My first time ever making a birthday cake.  I was pretty impressed with how it turned out.


The birthday boy!




















Happy Birthday buddy!!  We love you so so so much!



It's amazing how much you have changed in just a year!



Sunday, August 24, 2014

Emma Gene is here!

On August 3, 2014 at 8:25am Emma Gene Cook was born.  And your birth story is a good one.  At around 5 am I started having contractions.  They were a little more painful than all the Braxton hicks contractions I had been having for the past few weeks, so I decided to start timing them.  With every contraction I had to get up and move around so in my gut I knew that it was probably the real thing but I wanted to be sure.  So after an hour of having contractions about 10 mins apart we started making phone calls and got moving.

We called your Mimi and Big D to come and retrieve Weyland and we called the Dodd's to make sure they were ready to receive Weyland.  After gathering all of our things and getting Weyland ready we were on the road.  We dropped off Weyland a little before 7 at the Dodds, at which point my contractions were now about 6 mins apart.  Your Dad got me all the way to the hospital (in Tomball) in record time, thank God.  Within those 30 mins my contractions had now gone from being 6 mins apart to only 3 mins apart.  We park and get into the hospital as quick as possible.  After a quick encounter with a very rude and unsympathetic receptionist we discover on our own which floor labor and delivery is on and head to the elevators.  My contractions are continuing to get stronger and closer together.  It is now approximately 7:30am.  We find the front desk and a nurse and get checked in.

I don't think any of us were expecting to hear what we hear from the labor and delivery nurse after she helps me get changed checks to see how dilated I am.  8 cm!!  Holy moly!! I had only been in labor for 2.5 hours and I was already dilated to 8.  She instructs David to forget the birthing ball, that I had plans to labor on, and to come help me.  She fumbles with getting my IV in and ultimately has to get another nurse to help her.  By the time she gets done asking me all the necessary questions and completes her protocol I start getting the urge to push.  But the OB (the on call OB, not the OB I had been seeing for the past 4 months) is not there and come to find out won't be there for another 15-20 mins.  Those were the longest 15 mins of my life.  Our nurse frantically puts some consent forms in front of my face and gets me to sign them as fast as possible (since I'm already dilated to 10).

The next 10 mins I spent begging our L&D nurse to break my water and let me push.  Finally the doctor finally arrived! Hallelujah! She introduces herself, breaks my water and three pushes later you were here.  You were perfect!  You weighed 8 pounds and 5 ounces and measured 20.5 inches (although I think you were a little longer than that).  You were born with a full head of dark hair.  I'm excited to see if it stays or all falls out like your big brothers' did.
My heart grew even more full that morning.  Love, that I knew existed but didn't comprehend, was there as soon as I saw your precious little face.  You are my sweet little girl and I love you more that you will ever know.  I can not wait to see how you grow and change in the next year.  I love you Emma Gene!









Your first bow!



Your big brother was very excited to meet you!  He was so curious as to who this mysterious "baby sister" really was.  I think he fell in love with you the minute he saw you.  



Friday, August 22, 2014

Catch up

Wow I haven't visited our blog in a very long time.  It's been over a year. Yikes!  I really hate that I wasn't able to document Weyland's second year because like the first year he has reached so many milestones and he has changed so much.  So because I documented Weyland's first year so well I thought I should do the same for little Emma Gene.

Let me catch everyone up a little though, first.  We are now civilians!  David and I made the decision to leave the Army and to pursue life in the civilian world.  The Army was so good to us and we had lots of great experiences along the way.  We got to see some cool places and we made so many great friends, but we were ready for a change.

We are also now Houstonians!  We moved to Houston in April and we are loving it!  After getting used to all the traffic and humidity we are really enjoying our new home.  Unfortunately we have no family here but we are incredible blessed to have lots of great friends who have been taking great care of us as we have been making our transition.  Before moving to Houston we decided to buy our first house! Being a homeowner has its ups and downs but overall it has been great!

Probably the biggest change in our life has been our little Emma Gene.  On August 3rd we became a family of four.  She is such a good baby and so far Weyland has transitioned to his big brother roll pretty well.  I will keep everyone updated on everything Emma Gene and Weyland over the next year (hopefully).  Stay tuned.

15 months!

Disclaimer: This post is oh about a year late, but when I logged in this morning I realized I never posted it.  It looks like it was finished just without pictures.  Enjoy.


Weyland you are my crazy little man.  You are so full of energy and have a huge zest for life.  You love to run, explore, climb, play, talk, dance and sing!  If feels like you have grown so big in such a short amount of time!

You are now in day care pretty much, 5 days a week.  I have returned to work and am associating with a chiropractor here in Lawton.  It took you a while to get used to day care.  It probably took me a little longer.  I still miss you every day.  But you have grown to love it at day care.  You still in the pre-tot and infant class, but you will soon move into the toddler class.  You have become such a little helper to all your teachers, helping them clean up, and throwing things away.  Everyday when I pick you up you smile and run to me and then immediately turn away to point and show me things in your class.  It's too cute!

You are babbling so much now!  You are only saying a few things, like Dada, Mama, more and hot.  You are good signer too.  Although the signs that I show you don't seem to stick, and you like to make up your own.  Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what you are saying and signing but I usually figure it out.  Even though you aren't talking much your comprehension is awesome.  I can talk to you and ask you to do things and you know exactly what I want and need from you.  I can ask you to go get your shoes so we can go and you will go get them for me (sometimes).  You don't always want to do what I ask, but at least I know you are listening enough to not do what I would like you to.  You can pitch a good fit too when you are told no, or asked to do something you would prefer not to do, like get your diaper changed or come in from playing outside.  Speaking of outside, you love to play outside.  I wish it wasn't so hot outside and we would be outside a lot more.  I will be glad when it cools down and we can go outside and play as much as you want!

You still love books!  Your attention span doesn't always allow us to sit down and read a whole book, but it does allow us to turn pages and point out what is in the the book until we move on to the next one.  You are more into your toys now than you have been in the past.  You are more curious about playing with them and figuring them all out.  You also LOVE music and love to dance and sing.  When we turn on Pandora you smile and start rocking back and forth and bouncing up and down.  It's so cute.  And any time we sing itsy bity spider, head shoulders knees and toes, or any other song that you like to sing you start to sing along and attempt to perform all the movements.

You are still a Mama's boy.  You always want me to hold you, or cuddle with you or you need my attention so you can point out something to me.  Which I LOVE, but it makes it extremely hard to get ready in the morning and to make dinner in the evenings.  Luckily I have your daddy to play with you and distract you while I am making dinner.  You love your daddy too!  He plays the guitar for you, which you love.  He plays with you, chases you around the house and tries to scare you, which always makes you giggle.  You also have George to play with!  You love George!  He is your buddy.  You like to pet him, hug him and play with him.  I can't exactly say that George is your biggest fan, but he can come leaps and bounds.  He doesn't run from you anymore when you even reach out in his direction.  He even sits still when you give him a big Weyland hug.